A RAM Disk, also called RAM Drive or RAMDisk, works in many regards just like a hard drive. The core difference is that it is a virtual hard drive that uses RAM for storage. With it come notable differences born out of that: a RAM Disk is faster than hard drives, and the storage space that it offers is only available during the session unless the software supports the saving and loading of disk images.

These traits make RAM Disks ideal for a lot of purposes. You may use it as fast, temporary storage for temporary data. Move the browser cache to the RAM Disk, and never have to worry again about it filling up valuable disk space (as it is only available during that session).

You may even install applications or games on the RAM Disk to benefit from faster loading times and less performance related issues while playing those games or using those apps. Another option is to move files that you want to process to the RAM Disk to speed that up.

The best free RAM Disk programs for Windows

Requirements are simple: the programs must be offered as a free version, and they must be compatible with at least Windows 7 or newer versions of Windows.

AMD Radeon RAMDisk

AMD Radeon RAMDisk is not limited to devices equipped with AMD Radeon hardware. Anyone can download and install the program, and use it to create a single RAM Disk with up to 4 Gigabytes of space. The limit is raised to 6 Gigabyte on systems with AMD Radeon Memory.

The program is compatible with all versions of Windows starting with Windows Vista, and supports the saving and loading of the RAM image on start or shut down for persistent storage.

The program is created by DataRAM, a company known for its RAM Disk products. The program displays an ad for the commercial versions of AMD Radeon RAMDisk on start.

Check out our full review of AMD Radeon RAMDisk here.

Dataram RAMDisk Software

The resembles to AMD Radeon RAMDisk is obvious. It is more limited than AMD's version, as you may only create RAM disks up to a size of 1023 Megabytes using it.

Changes may be saved on shutdown, and you may select to load the saved image on start. The program lacks features that AMD's version offers, such as selecting a drive letter for the disk.

Check out our review of Dataram RAMDisk Software here.

Gavotte RAMDisk

Gavotte RAMDisk supports the creation of a single RAMDisk on Windows machines -- XP or newer as well as Server 2003 and 2008 -- with no size limitation. The interface is basic but functional. Install and remove the RAM Disk, configure its size, drive letter and media type, and use the load or save image buttons for persistent storage.

The program has not been updated in a while though, and does not support Windows 8 or Windows 10 officially.

ImDisk Toolkit

One of the interesting features of ImDisk is that you may use it to create dynamic RAM Disks. Instead of specifying a size during setup, you may check the "allocate memory dynamically" option to have it changed on the fly.

The program does not limit the size of the RAM Disk, but you may only create a single one using it. It supports the loading and saving of images for persistent storage options.

ImDisk Toolkit offers more than just the creation of a RAM Disk. You may use the program to mount image files as well.

OSFMount

Designed primarily to mount virtual disk images, OSFMount comes with capabilities to create RAM Disks as well.

Actually, it offers two options here. First, you may load a disk image file in RAM, or create an empty RAM drive instead.

OSFMount supports the creation of multiple RAM drives, and does not limit the size of them. You may select drive letters during setup as well, and may set them to read-only. Data can be saved to image files so that you can load it in the future again.

Softperfect RAM Disk

Softperfect RAM Disk is no longer available on the Softperfect website. You may still download it from portals such as Major Geeks though.

The program ticks all the right boxes. It does not limit the RAM that you may use to create RAM disks, and you may create as many as you have free drive letters for.

It supports the saving of images so that data persists across sessions, a lot of command line switches, file system selection for each RAM disk, and an option to launch programs when RAM disks load.

StarWind RAM Disk

StarWind requires you to create an account on the website before the download link of the company's RAM Disk software is sent to the email account you used to register the account.

The program may be used to create multiple RAM Disks that are not size limited. It offers basic functionality besides that however: you cannot assign drive letters to disks, and there is no option to save and load disk images as well.

RAM Disk comparison

* 6GB with AMD Radeon Memory

Other RAM Disk programs

The following programs are not listed in the main section above for one reason of the other. They may still prove useful to you in some situations:

1. Bond Disk -- The program supports a maximum size of 640 Megabyte. The main purpose of the program is however not the creation of a RAMdisk, but storage for files that hold valuable information. Additionally, it has last been updated in 2010. Read our review of Bond Disk here.
2. Gizmo Drive -- Gizmo drive is part of Gizmo Central, and cannot be downloaded separately. The program's main purpose is the mounting of disk images or encrypted hard drive images. One of the features that it supports however is the creation of RAM drives. You may use it to create multiple RAMDisks that are not limited in size. Program has not been updated since 2011.
3. VSuite Ramdisk Free Edition -- Last updated in 2010, the program is only available as a 32-bit version. It supports a size of up to 4 Gigabytes, and multiple RAMDisks. Also, supports the saving and loading of data on system boot and shut down.

Additional resources

The overview and description of each program is certainly helpful in determining the best suitable program for your use cases. I suggest you check out Raymond's RAM Disk Software benchmark to find out how many of these programs perform.

If you want to know more about RAM Disks in general, check out the Wikipedia article on RAM drives.

Closing Words

On a personal note, I have used SoftPerfect RAM Disk for the past years (the latest free version), and cannot be happier with it. It offers great functionality, and the downside that it is no longer maintained does not bother me as it works fine and without issues.

Now You: Do you use a RAM Disk on your system?

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The Caps Lock and Num Lock keys on a computer keyboard can cause some troubling experiences when you they toggled without you realizing it.

Caps Lock for instance may result in passwords not being accepted because you type different characters than you intend to. Num Lock on the other hand locks and unlocks the numpad, and if you use it regularly, you may have tapped on five or more keys already before you realize that none was sent to the computer.

TrayStatus

TrayStatus is available as a free and professional version. The free version of the program may be used for personal use only, and lacks a handful of options of the professional versions.

The core functionality, the display and monitoring of certain keys on the computer keyboard, is available however.

TrayStatus is available as a portable version or installer. Both offer the same functionality, but you may need to make more adjustments to the portable version (e.g. autostart with Windows).

First thing you may want to do when you run the program for the first time is to open the settings. These should launch automatically, but if they don't, right-click on one of the program's icons in the system tray area, and select settings to open them.

The status indicators page lists the available indicators that TrayStatus may display as individual icons on the taskbar. They are:

• Caps Lock Status.
• Num Lock Status.
• Scroll Lock Status.
• Kana, ALT, CTRL, SHIFT, WIN status.
• Hard Drive activity.
• CPU usage (PRO).
• Memory usage (PRO).
• Audio Playback Status (PRO).

The program displays a separate icon for each indicator that you enable. Yes, this can lead to more than ten icons being added to the Windows system tray area if you enable them all.

Please note that the icons may be hidden behind the system tray menu on newer versions of Windows by default. You need to change the visibility of the icons first, before they are visible all the time.

On Windows 10 for instance, you'd have to right-click on the arrow icon in the system tray area, select Settings, and on the Taskbar settings page that opens "select which icons appear on the taskbar".

You find each icon that you have activated in the program settings there individually.  Depending on how you use your system, you may either want to restrict the display of indicators to Caps Lock and Num Lock, or enable additional indicators if you find them useful.

One interesting feature of each icon is that you can toggle the status with a double-click. The icons do change their appearance depending on their status. It is usually the case that a white background indicates that the key is active, and a black that it is not active.

Tray Status offers a couple of other settings that you may find interesting. You may enable autostart with the operating system under General for instance. There you find options to play a sound whenever the key status changes, and may use different sounds for on and off status changes.

The status indicators page of the settings allows you to change the theme of the icons, for instance to dark icons, and to separate hard drives so that each is shown with its own icon.

The program used about 25 Megabytes of RAM on a 64-bit Windows 10 system in the background with three indicators enabled. This is more than other programs such as NumCapsScroll Indicator or Keyboard Leds require. TrayStatus is more powerful than those programs on the other hand, and it is still updated regularly while the mentioned programs are not.

Closing Words

TrayStatus is a powerful key indicator for Windows that may also display the hard drive, memory and CPU status in the system tray area of the operating system.

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We have reviewed EditBone back in 2013 and found it to be an excellent editor especially for programmers due to its support for over 50 different programming and scripting languages.

Support for languages such as C++, Java, HTML or CSS comes in form of styles that the editor applies automatically to the code to improve readability.

Text Editor Pro is EditBone at its core. If you have used the text editor before you will won't have any difficulties using the new version.

Text Editor Pro

The last version of EditBone was version 12.17.4. The first version of Text Editor Pro was released on March 6 as version 1.0.

The interface itself has not changed all that much. You get a tabbed driven interface with a ribbon UI at its core. You may load multiple documents into the text editor, and add or hide various interface elements.

You will notice that recognized file types are formatted automatically. If you load a HTML file for instance, you will get styled tags, values, and other information for better accessibility of the code.

Another interesting option that you have is to load a directory. This is useful for code projects for instance, but also if you store your documents in a central location on the system.

A file browser is displayed on the left side of the interface that you may use then to open documents or files quickly in the editor.

Most changes that landed into Text Editor Pro are fixes; only a couple add  or change functionality instead. A progress bar was added for instance when the editor reads outputs on start, and an option to expand or collapse all output is available now as well.

The editor changed considerably when compared to the version that I reviewed back in 2013. The ribbon UI is new for instance,  but you can turn if off and return to the classic menu structure of the editor if you prefer to use it instead.

The developer added more customization options and features to the application in the past couple of years. Useful tools that you may use of now include a unicode character map, a numerical unit converter tool, or a SQL formatting tool. You may also download skins for the editor from the developer website.

The program itself is offered as a 32-bit and 64-bit installer or portable version for the Microsoft Windows operating system. Downloads for the SQL formatter are provided on the project website as well.

Closing Words

Text Editor Pro is a powerful text editor for Windows. The name change has not changed the program's functionality at all, and if you have used it previously, there is no reason to avoid the upgrade to the new version.

Now You: which plain text editor do you use.

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I reviewed Ashampoo Snap 7 back in 2013; a lot has changed since then, and yesterday's release of Ashampoo Snap 10 was a good enough reason to revisit the program and write another view.

Ashampoo Snap 10 is a commercial program. Customers who run a previous version can upgrade for a discounted price, the retail price is $49.99. You may download a trial version of the program from the Ashampoo website to test the software for ten days before making a buying decision.

Ashampoo Snap 10 review

Installation of the program is straightforward. You may select the installation directory, and configure the program to start with Windows as well.

The program is compatible with any device running Windows 7 or a newer version of Microsoft's Windows operating system.

You interact with the program in several ways. There is the capture bar, displayed at the top right of the screen by default, keyboard shortcuts, and the system tray icon and menu that you may use for that.

You can disable the capture bar if you don't need it. It is displayed as a small line at the top which expands when you hover the mouse over it.

The capture options -- video and various screenshot options -- are listed as icons there then:

• Capture video.
• Capture scrolling window (freestyle, Firefox).
• Capture scrolling window (Chrome, Edge).
• Capture single window.
• Capture free rectangle region.
• Capture freestyle region.
• Capture fixed region.
• Capture menu.
• Capture multiple windows/objects.
• Timed capture.
• Capture text (OCR).

The next step depends on what you select. If you select to capture a scrolling window for instance, you select that window with a click in the next step. Freestyle captures on the other hand let you draw rectangles or entirely custom shapes on the screen to highlight the areas that you want captured.

You are taken to a configuration window when you select video capture. Ashampoo Snap supports several recording options when it comes to video capture:

• Single window.
• Desktop (all monitors).
• Primary monitor.
• Rectangular region.
• Fixed region.
• Webcam.

You may select available audio and video presets, or switch to custom configuration to select the desired codec, frames per second, and quality parameters manually instead.

Videos can be encoded on the fly during the capture process, or saved to disk first and encoded after the capture ends. The latter option is useful to improve performance of the process.

Screen captures are opened in a full screen editor by default. You may change that behavior in the preferences, for instance to save captures automatically to disk instead.

The editor looks quite messy on first launch, as icons are displayed on the left, top and right of the interface. These icons have no titles, and it may take a while to understand what they do.

The left and top icon bars are designed for image manipulation, the right bar for processing the image afterwards.

All options that you could possibly want are available. You may add arrows or text to the screenshot, rotate or zoom it, blur or erase parts of it, or highlight parts.

The processing options are equally extensive. You may save the capture to the local system, cloud, or Facebook or Twitter, share it, print it, turn it into a PDF document, or send it to another application among other options.

One feature that I'd like to see here is an option to customize what is displayed on the screen. If I don't use a particular feature, I'd like an option to hide it from the editor to improve the accessibility of the features that I do use.

Ashampoo 10 Settings

It is advised to go through the settings on first start to customize the program for your needs. Options that you find there include configuring the output format, name and directory, default action when a screenshot is captured, hotkeys, and capture specific preferences such as browser monitoring, and website URL recording.

The last option is a new feature of Ashampoo Snap 10. The program may add the URL of the website that you captured using it to the screen capture. This can be interested for reference purposes, but is easily disabled in the settings if you don't require that option.

Ashampoo Snap 10: what is new

Here is a list of what is new in Ashampoo Snap 10 compared to Snap 9:

• Create screenshots of 3D fullscreen games.
• Capture screenshots and videos in up to 4K resolution.
• Videos: cut and join videos, save videos as episodes, turn videos into animated gifs, and improved video watermarks.
• Improved text recognition support.
• Add origin (URL) to images, to metadata, or in emailed messages (Outlook only).
• Speed improvements.
• Edit window is moveable now, and can be minimized.
• Full DPI awareness, support for different DPI settings across monitors.
• New formatting options for numbered buttons.
• Highlight effect with image analysis.

Closing Words

Ashampoo Snap 10 is a powerful screen capture program for Windows. It supports all the features that you expect from a commercial program, and then some. One interesting feature is for instance the ability to capture the desktop of multi-monitor systems simultaneously, or the ability to add URLs to the capture in various ways.

An option to turn off the tutorial system would be nice as Snap 10 displays tutorial screens when you use a feature for the first time. These may be useful to inexperienced users, but if you have used a capture software before, you may not need them at all.

Is it worth the price? That depends entirely on your requirements. Free programs like Greenshot offer great functionality as well, but they are limited when it comes to some features such as recording video, editing images, or the capture methods that they support.

Now You: Which screen capture software do you use?

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We reviewed the version of StartIsBack+ for Windows 8.1 back when it was released. If you have used that version before, you have a good understanding already what StartIsBack++ 2.0.1 for Windows 10 brings to the table.

The last version of the program dates back to October 2016, and it is version 1.3.4. I'm not sure what happened to version 2.0 though of the application.

StartIsBack++ 2.0.1 for Windows 10 is a commercial program. You can test it for 30 days, but if you want to continue using it, you will have to buy a license for the fair price of $2.99. This is even cheaper than the $4.99 that Stardock charges for its excellent Start10 program, especially since this is for a lifetime license.

StartIsBack++ 2.0

StartIsBack++ 2.0.1  exchanges the start menu that Windows 10 systems ship with a custom one, for instance one that resembles the Windows 7 start menu.

The software ships with three different start menu styles, and an option to select a custom start menu button as well from a list of available options.

If you have used the program before you will notice that new options have been added to the process.

This includes options to skin the taskbar completely. StartIsBack++ 2.0.1 ships with Windows 7 and Windows 8 taskbar styles included that you can enable with a click in the appearance menu.

This enables you to display the Windows 7 start menu with the Windows 10 taskbar, or the default Windows 10 start menu with the Windows 8 taskbar, and the Windows 7 start button.

You may customize the appearance furthermore in the settings. Options include selecting a custom start menu and taskbar color, or enabling a Windows XP-style flyout menu.

As far as other improvements are concerned: you can configure the program to expand the Settings application directly in the start menu. This displays all pages of the Settings application right there for selection.

This option is not enabled by default, and needs to be enabled in the options under "Start menu". Locate the Settings app under right side items on the page, and switch its state to menu there.

You find  the same option for the classic Control Panel there, and may enable the display of items that are not displayed by default there as well.

StartIsBack++ 2.0.1 ships with an improved Settings application search as well. Just type some characters and all Settings pages that match what you have typed are returned by the program for quick opening.

Another new feature is support for dragging and dropping files on Windows App icons in the start menu to open them.

Users who work on devices connected to high DPI screens may notice improved support for high DPI as well.

It is a good idea to go through the settings after installation to customize the program's functionality. You find plenty of options there to, for instance to hide all modern apps, or add custom folders to the start menu for quick access.

Closing Words

StartIsBack++ 2.0.1 replaces the original Windows 10 start menu with a custom version. You may use it to display a classic start menu on Windows 10 machines, and adjust plenty of other start menu or taskbar related options as well.

Now You: Do you use a start menu replacement on your computer?

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The program tries to answer one simple question: where did all the free disk space go? We reviewed TreeSize Free back in 2010 for the first time, and found it to be a powerful program to analyze storage devices in regards to used disk space.

The free version of TreeSize does not follow the same update schedule as the commercial personal and professional versions. It is the first release in over a year.

Note: One of the changes is that support for Microsoft's Windows XP system has been dropped. Windows XP users cannot use the new version because of that, and need to use the previous version, version 3.4.5 instead.

TreeSize Free 4.0

The program interface has changed a bit. The program uses a ribbon interface now known from Microsoft Office, File Explorer on Windows 10, and some other applications.

There is an option to switch to a touch optimized interface under Options > User Interface, but no option to restore the classic interface of the program.

The touch version uses a UWP-style layout. It opens in full screen by default, and displays large buttons and text for easier handling on touch-enabled devices. The version replaces TreeSize Touch which is available on the Windows Store.

The general layout of the data has not changed however. TreeSize Free scans and displays the list of folders and files on the main hard drive on start. The data is sorted from largest to smallest, so that it is rather easy to identify the largest offenders in regards to occupied disk space on the drive.

You simply follow the trail of folders until you reach the file listing. You may speed things up by using the expand option, as it enables you to expand all folders, or only folders up to a certain level from the root folder.

TreeSize Free can scan drives, but accepts any folder as the root location for scans as well.

One option that is new in TreeSize Free 4.0 is support for the treemap chart. You enable it by selecting View > Show Treemap.

It adds a new pane to the program interface that visualizes the data distribution on a hierarchical map. Note that you need a bit of space to make good use of the view mode. You may right-click on the selection there to change what is displayed, and to run Explorer commands on the selection.

It is for instance possible to enable file listings as well in the view mode. These options are also available in the chart options tab of the ribbon menu. A double-click on any part of the map loads the files it contains on the left sidebar. The treemap changes automatically when you navigate folders on the left.

What else is new? TreeSize Free support for high DPI displays has improved, and users should notice a better scan performance when they run the program on mobile devices.

Closing Words

TreeSize Free 4.0 is an excellent program that you may use to analyze the disk space distribution of a drive, or folder on a computer running Windows.

Some users may not like the new ribbon interface, but it does not really get into the way this much.

I still prefer WizTree myself as it is faster and better suited for my needs. Still, TreeSize Free is a good alternative that you may want to give a try.

Now You: Do you use a program to analyze disk space?

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I switched to Bandizip in 2014 as it supported features that 7-Zip, the program that I used up to that point, failed to introduce much needed features quickly enough.

The company responsible for Bandizip released beta versions of the program in 2016, and you may want to check out the first look article that I wrote back then as things have not changed all that much since then.

Bandizip 6.0

Bandizip 6.0 is offered as a portable version for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows, and as an installer. The latest version is not compatible with Windows XP. Only option that you have is to keep on using Bandizip 5.x on devices running the operating system.

Installation is straightforward. Please note that the option to send usage statistics and crash reports is enabled when you install the program. You can disable it during setup on the same page that you can change the installation path on.

The installer changed, and it appears that it requires an Internet connection during installation. You can still download and run the portable version instead which does not have the requirement.

The program opens with a new start screen if you start it without loading archives at the same time. You can disable this new screen with a click on View > Start Screen.

The program interface has changed, but not dramatically. You get a new color scheme and icons, but the general layout and look and feel remained the same.

Note that you may change the color scheme used by the program under Settings > Color.

The menu icons in the toolbar offer the same features, and the archive listing uses the traditional two-pane interface. You may also change the toolbar's look and feel to the classic design by selecting View > Toolbar Old from the menu bar at the top. The result looks like this when you do:

Another option that you have is to reduce the size of the toolbar menu to small. This is only possible for the new design though. You find the option under View > Toolbars > Small.

The left side of the interface lists the folders, if available, and the right the actual file content. You may run operations using the toolbar menu, the right-click context menu, or keyboard shortcuts.

As far as new features are concerned, there are a handful. Bandizip 6.0 supports the new archive formats ZPAC and LZIP, and you may notice that extraction and compression tasks perform faster in the new version. The beta version history listed support for MS Compound and ARC formats as well. Another new feature that is not mentioned in the final release history is support for creating GX/XZ archives.

A quick test with fairly large archives revealed that this is indeed the case, at least when it comes to extracting archives on the system.

The release history page lists a new console program, and a new command line command as well, but fails to go into details. The new console program is bc.exe which you find in the program folder. You may use it to run commands directly without opening the program UI. The application replaces the 7z.exe program that Bandizip used in previous versions.

Changes not mentioned on the release history page include a new listing of recently opened files under File > Recent Files, and an option to change the file listing from the details view to icons or list view instead.

These replicate the two Windows Explorer view styles. The icon view mode displays files as icons with the name listed underneath the icon, the list view file names and icons as a list instead. Both modes don't display other information such as the file size.

Closing Words

Bandizip 6.0 ships with additional features, and better performance when it comes to extracting archives and creating new archives. Some users may not like the new interface, but you can adjust it somewhat using the View menu, for instance by enabling the classic look of the toolbar there.

Now You: What's your take on the new Bandizip 6.0?

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If you compare the voice controlled computers of science fiction franchises such as Star Wars or Star Trek with what is possible today, you will notice that voice control has a long way to go to reach those levels of interaction.

Microsoft did launch the voice controlled assistant Cortana with Windows 10, but it is fairly limited when it comes to what you can use Cortana for. The same is true for other voice controlled devices such as Amazon's Alexa, Google's personal assistant, or Apple's Siri.

Agnitio

Agnitio is a third-party program for Windows that accepts voice commands. The program's focus is the launching of programs, and the opening of system tools.

Good news is that it is not nearly as data hungry as the personal assistants mentioned above as it won't communicate with Internet servers or transfer your command history to a remote server somewhere on the Internet.

Agnitio lists all available commands in five groups in its interface on start.

• Web Browsers -- Launch Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome or Opera.
• System -- Open Notepad, Command Prompt, Services, Disk Cleanup, Event Viewer, System Information, Firewall, or shut down, restart, or log off.
• Websites -- Further divided into email providers -- Yahoo, Gmail, Outlook, Mail -- and video streaming services -- YouTube, Vimeo and Twitch.
• Search Engines -- Open Google, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo Search or Bing.
• Extra -- Run a Google Search, get current weather information, show, or hide.

You need a microphone to make use of the voice commands that Agnitio enables on the system when it runs. To use it, simply say what you want to do, e.g. open Twitch to have the command executed by Agnitio.

One downside to using Agnitio is that you cannot add custom commands to the program. This means that you cannot change the search engines or supported browsers for instance, or add custom commands to the application at this point in time.

Considering that it is still in beta state, future versions may support that functionality. For now, all you get is what the program ships with.

The program runs in training mode after installation. You can disable training mode in the settings. There you find other options, for instance to switch from a female voice to a male voice, or from a dark  to a light theme.

You may also enable the "run at system startup" option. This is useful if you use the program regularly, and don't want to start it manually each time you plan on using it.

The program is created by the developer of Win10Privacy, a popular privacy program for Windows 10. Please note that it requires the Microsoft .NET Framework to run.

The program uses about 15 Megabytes of memory when it runs in the background.

Closing Words

Agnitio is a beta program, and it may improve over time. The functionality that it provides right now may work for some users, but it is too limiting for my taste. This is not just a problem of Agnitio, but most voice-based solutions out there right now.

Now You: voice controlled computing yay or nay?

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The audio software can record live audio through microphones or mixers, digitize recordings from other media, and also capture audio when a supported sound card is available.

Apart from recording audio, you may also edit audio streams in a variety of ways using Audacity. This includes among other things basic operations such as cutting or deleting, or adding effects to the stream.

Audacity 2.1.3

Probably the most important feature addition of Audacity 2.1.3 is official support for Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system. Windows 10 users won't receive internal PortAudio errors anymore when built-in audio devices are enabled. This was achieved by upgrading PortAudio to r1966.

Audacity is a cross-platform application. Users on Mac OS X benefit from better Trackpad and Magic Mouse horizontal scroll support.

(Windows) Windows 10 is now supported (there should be no "Internal PortAudio Error" or failure to find any devices as long as the built-in audio devices are enabled).

(macOS) We now support Trackpad and Magic Mouse horizontal scroll without SHIFT key and Trackpad pinch and expand to zoom at the pointer.

Windows XP users need to note that Audacity 2.1.3 is the last version that officially supports the operating system. This does not necessarily mean that future versions of Audacity won't run on Windows XP machines, but it could very well be the case.

All users benefit from memory leak fixes; Audacity should handle memory usage better.

As far as features are concerned, there are plenty:

1. New scrubbing features (Scrub Ruler, Scrub Toolbar. The latter is off by default, enable under View > Toolbars).
2. New effects and generators (new distortion effect, Click Track generator renamed to Rhythm Track, new generator for Sample Data Import).
3. New Timer Record features.

Audacity is digitally signed now on Mac OS X and Windows (not on XP). Go through the list of known issues before you start the update, for instance by checking for updates via Help > Check for Updates.

The list is -- very -- long, and can be quite intimidating. One option that you have is to run a search for your operating system on the page, e.g. Windows, or more specific XP, to get all issues listed that affect the system.

Also, you need to go through the listing a second time to check program features that you use actively (e.g. Playback and Recording).

You can download the latest version of Audacity from the official project website.

Now You: Do you use Audacity, another audio editor, or none at all?

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You may install the program on a Windows machine, or run it without installation. Please note that Riot Isolator requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.x or higher.

The program interface itself lists the four main options Eraser, Toolbox, Unlocker and Network. Three of those, Eraser, Unlocker and Network, are single purpose tools.

Toolbox on the other hand lists ten additional tools that you may make use of.

Riot Isolator review

Eraser and Unlocker work exactly as you'd expect them to. Drag and drop files or folders on to the target icon, and either have them deleted securely from the computer system (Eraser), or unlocked so that you can process them.

The Eraser feature overwrites the data that you dragged and dropped on to the icon twice, but does not differentiate between platter-based hard drives and Solid State Drives. It is up to you to make sure that you only drag files from platter-based hard drives, as files from SSDs won't be erased securely due to the nature of how data is stored and processed.

Network logs the TCP connections within the last eleven minutes when activated. It is not a network on/off switch, but displays a graph when selected that shows the number of TCP connections instead.

Toolbox is the heart of the application. It includes the following ten tools:

1. Anti-screenshot tool.
2. Anti-keylogger tool.
3. Anti-webcam tool.
4. Anti-exploit functionality.
5. Volume protection.
6. Drive Eraser.
7. Live report.
8. Recycle Bin cleaner.
9. Presentation mode.
10. Realtime recognize.

Some tools, like the anti-keylogger tool, let you toggle their functionality with two clicks. Others require explanation to understand what they are designed for.

Anti-exploit for instance may prevent the spoofing of file extensions, and detect process executions in memory. The spoofing protection detects two commonly used methods of spoofing file extensions on Windows, and will kill processes that make use of it.

The detection of process executions in memory rates the risk level of these executions.

Volume protection may be used to block new USB volumes on the device, and to make all USB volumes read only.

Live Report enables limited report functionality online. I could not get this to work on the device I tested the program on. It supposedly lets you access information such as an activity monitor, module overview, or screenshots, online.

Presentation mode locks down the computer by focusing on a single process / program window.

Realtime recognize finally provides you with information on runtime about the packing tools that executable files use on the system.

The interface of Riot Isolator can best be described as messy and compact. Settings are for instance displayed on multiple pages with no option to manage them all on a single page.

The same is true for the toolbox. You only see if you have enabled one of the "anti" options when you select that option in the toolbox.

The tools work well on the other hand, at least the ones that I ran tests for. The anti-screenshot tool blackens the screen when it is enabled. This is true not only for Windows' own copy to clipboard option, but also third-party screenshot tools.

Closing Words

Riot Isolator is a powerful program with a messy interface. While you will find your way around in the program after clicking through all the options, the fact that the state of the tools is not shown is a serious usability issue.

All in all though, this is a handy tool to have at your disposal.

Now You: Do you find a multi-purpose program like Riot Isolator useful?

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The new menu of Windows Explorer may grow considerably over time. Microsoft ships the menu with a couple of entries already, for instance to create a new folder or plain text file. Third-party programs may add their own new handlers to the menu.

While you may find some of those useful, others may sit idly in the menu for years without being used once in that time.

Since you may end up with several dozen entries in the menu, finding the new items that you want may be slowed down.

shellNewSettings

Lots of programs assist you in removing unwanted entries from the Explorer new menu.There is for instance ShellMenuNew by Nirsoft which gives you full control over the items listed under new in Explorer.

You can remove entries manually using the Windows Registry as well, but using third-party tools is more comfortable and easier.

ShellNewSettings is a tiny 20 Kilobyte application that you may use to remove new entries from Windows Explorer. It is not as sophisticated as Nirsoft's program, as you cannot use it to add or modify entries.

It may be an option if you need a quick program to remove items from the Explorer context menu and don't need any additional functionality.

Please note that it does require the Microsoft .Net Framework 4 or higher to run.

The program lists all new items in the interface on start. Remove the checkmark next to the item's box to hide it from the new menu.

The change takes effect right away. It is best to test the change right away by opening an Explorer window to display the new menu with a right-click and the selection of new from it.

Note that the program keeps those options. This is useful if you want to display a previously hidden item again in the new menu.

The only other option is a refresh button. It is useful if you made changes elsewhere, e.g. a software installation or Registry edit while shellNewSettings was open. This loads the data again from the Registry so that you get the most recent new items displayed there.

Closing Words

ShellNewSettings is a simple program that is good for the occasional use. I do prefer Nirsoft's program, as it offers all the functionality of ShellNewSettings, and extra functionality. Nirsoft's program is fully portable on top of that, and just a couple of Kilobytes larger.

Still, if you want a simpler tool that gets the hiding job done as well, ShellNewSettings may be a viable option for that.

Now You: Do you manage your Explorer context menus to optimize them?

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First thing you will notice is that the client is quite large. The download has a size of about 80 Megabytes thanks to -- you guessed that one right -- Electron.

Second thing worth noting is that you can use the client only if you sign in with a Twitch or Curse account, or create one. The Twitch web service does not have that limitation. The data that you enter does not need to be verified however.

So, what is the Twitch Desktop Client then, and which features does it support?

Twitch Desktop Client

According to Twitch's own description, it brings all your "favorite communities, friends, and games" together in one place.

This means that the client's purpose is not to bring Twitch gaming streams to your desktop. Instead, it brings the community features of Twitch to your desktop (which may feature game streams).

The features look pretty much like a modernized version of IRC. You have servers that you can join, and servers have admins, moderators and the like which have more rights than channel guests.

People can post messages on servers they have joined, and interact with each other in several ways.

You may add friends to the app, and create your own server if you like. This works directly in the software without you having to spend money on that.

The server can be public, but they are not by default. Public servers appear in the discover queue, and anyone may join them.

If you create a server, you get access to the admin panel to customize it. This includes setting the server to public, defining and modifying roles, adding members, banning users, planning events, and more.

You may also sync your server with your (Twitch) stream. If you enable this feature, and it is only useful if you do stream on Twitch, then you are assigning Twitch channel roles automatically to server members as they join, and it lets anyone watch the stream within the app.

Twitch's Desktop application for windows supports text messaging, but also voice and video calls. These calls are free as they are made within the app. Think of Skype but limited to people who use the app.

The general options list a lot of options. You can set up hotkeys for all kinds of things such as muting the microphone, disable the in-game overlay for compatible games, scan the computer for compatible games, disable the sharing of your activity, and configure notifications.

Closing Words

Twitch Desktop App is mostly useful to three types of users. First, to Twitch streamers who want to take advantage of the community features that it introduces on the desktop. Second, to Twitch users who are active in at least one community on Twitch. And third, to gamers, who want to use the application to manage a group of friends, or a game server.

Now You: do you use Twitch for gaming? Or something different?

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Building PCs, as opposed to buying them out of the box, can be a very rewarding experience. Apart from gaining knowledge on how the PC works, it allows you to pick the components and layout that you want.

The process can also be intimidating, especially if you have never built a PC before. Things can, and probably will, go wrong, and the worst that can happen is that components get damaged.

Select online retailers offer services in which they assemble and test the PC based on the components that you have picked.

PC Building Simulator

PC Building Simulator has been released as a very early pre-alpha version. The main idea behind the game is to build your own desktop PC.

The released version only features the tutorial at this point. It displays an empty PC tower that you can walk around, and rotate.

You can select components from the inventory with a tap on the i-key on the keyboard. Components are fairly limited right now, but support for more options will be added as development progresses.

All that is available right now is to pick a component, and place it in the PC. You repeat the process for components that you want to add, e.g. cpu, memory, video card, and hard drives.

The tutorial walks you through those steps, one component at a time.

There is little else that you can do right now. The reason why I'm writing about this is that it could lead to some exciting options for users who are interested in PC building.

While it may be useful already, as you see where each component goes, future versions could turn the rudimentary game into a real simulator.

Imagine using it to pick any component from the vast inventory of retailers such as Newegg starting with the PC Tower.

You could see if the components fit in the tower, if there is enough room for the video card.

The game could then simulate compatibility of components, or airflow, to give you an even better understanding of what you have built so far.

While I'd really like that, it seems likely that the developer will go down the "game" route instead. Still, even that could be useful for users who never assembled a PC before and want to know more about it without paying hundreds or even thousands of Dollars for components at that stage in the learning process.

You can grab the early alpha build from here. It is available for Windows and Linux.

Now You: Do you build your own PCs?

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You can copy, move or cut files on Windows by default if you use Windows Explorer. If you happen to move files regularly to new destinations, you may have noticed that the operation can become quite time consuming.

I run move and delete operations regularly on the download folder of a Windows PC that I use. The folder accumulates files quickly over time and grows to a point where it is taking up a considerable amount of space on the computer.

This is when I start to move files out of the folder that I still need, and delete those that I don't require anymore.

MoveQueue

Handling multiple Explorer windows for the operation works, but it is anything but comfortable. MoveQueue, a free program for Windows, was designed to improve the process significantly.

At its core, it is a program that lets you move (or delete) files stored in a target folder using the keyboard, or drag and drop.

Like the name suggests, it supports queued operations as well.

First thing you do when you run it is to add one or multiple destinations to the "active destination list".  These are the locations that you want to move files to.

Each destination requires a target folder at the very least. You may add a hotkey to the destination as well for selecting it faster. If you don't do that, you need to use drag and drop operations to move files to that folder.

Sequence is only useful if you either need more descriptive shortcuts, or run out of simple shortcuts to use.

You can use most keys as a shortcut, including single-keys such as T or F.

All that is left then is to select a root directory that you want to organize. The scan should happen automatically, but if it does not, hit the scan button to populate the file listing. MoveQueue ignores folders by default, but you can include folders, or use the recurse folders option instead. The latter is useful if files are also stored in subfolders under the selected directory path.

Once you get the files, either drag and drop them to a target destination, highlight files and use a shortcut to mark them for the move action to the linked destination, or right-click to use other actions such as marking files for deletion, or use drag and drop to drop them on a target location.

All that is left then is to click on execute actions to run all selected actions. You can check the queued items at any time with a click on the the action list link at the bottom of the screen. This lists all queued items including the desired action.

The program runs all queued operations when you click on the execute actions button.

The only other options provided are located in the settings. You may configure the default action for name conflicts (if a file with the same name and extension exists in the target location) among other things.

The default action is to rename the file that is moved. You can however switch to overwrite or skip instead.

Closing Words

MoveQueue is a useful program for Windows, especially if you run move or delete operations regularly. The program remembers the target destinations, making it useful for repeat operations.

One thing that is missing is a filter option, for instance to display only certain file types for easier selection.

Now You: Do you have a folder with lots of files on your system that you need to move files out of?

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While most Windows users know what shortcuts are, as they are exposed to shortcuts regularly on the desktop, on the taskbar or the Start Menu, symbolic links, hardlinks and junctions are not as commonly known.

Symbolic links link to another path on the device that the operating system or applications that run on it follow. Hard links on the other hand can best be described as referencing a file using different names under different paths. Junctions finally (called soft links sometimes) works in the same way, but for directories.

Check out Jack's take on getting to know links on Linux if you run a Linux distribution.

Linkmaker

Linkmaker is a free program for Windows that does not need to be installed. Please note that it requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 to run.

The program displays all its options on a single page in its interface. To use it, select a link target either by entering it manually, dragging and dropping it into the interface, or using the file browser for that.

Once you have done that, set the link location and name in the lower half of the interface. Please note that the available options differ depending on the link type selection.

If you select shortcut for instance, you may set a new link location, and add arguments to the execution as well. The latter option is not available for symbolic links, hard links, or junctions.

One example: you can use these types of links (not shortcuts) to make folders available in different locations. Say, you want to sync c:\wallpapers to your Dropbox account, but don't want to move the folder to the Dropbox folder.

Using the program, you can create a link from the Dropbox folder to the original folder so that the Dropbox software handles it as if the wallpapers directory would be inside the Dropbox folder.

The program ships with settings that make some operations easier to handle. You can enable the add to "new" and "create link here" context menu options in the settings to initiate new links directly from Explorer for instance.

The only other option that is provided by linkMaker at the time of writing is to turn off elevation. This will disable symbolic link creation on the target system however.

Alternatives

We have reviewed several programs for Windows in the past that improve using symbolic links, hard links or junctions on Windows machines:

• Display Symbolic Links With NTFS Links View
• Create NTFS Junctions aka Directory symbolic links
• Junction, Create Symbolic Links
• Symbolic Link Creator
• Move installed Steam games to a new folder

Closing words

LinkMaker is a handy, lightweight program for Microsoft Windows that you may use to create Windows shortcuts, symbolic links, hard links, and junctions. The main appeal of the program is probably that it combines all those options in a single interface.

Now You: Do you work with symbolic links regularly?

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The application is available for free, but you need to sign in to an account before you can use it. You may use some third-party services for that, or create an account directly within the software. While you are asked to enter an email address and other information, nothing appears to be verified at this point in time.

The application itself has been designed for network administrators, webmasters, and advanced users. It lists the available tools on the left side, and the interface of the selected tool in the center.

NetCrunch Network Tools

The tools are separated into the three groups Basic IP Tools, Subnet Tools, and Scanners.

The Basic IP Tools group lists five applications that you can run:

• Ping -- accepts a hostname or IP address, and pings it. Results are returned in the interface.
• Traceroute -- traces the route from the local computer to the hostname or IP address.
• Wake On Lan -- accepts a computer MAC address to wake a connected computer by sending the request to it.
• DNS Info -- retrieves DNS information of a domain name or server that you enter.
• Who Is -- runs a Whois query on a domain name, and displays the information in the interface.

The Subnet Tools section lists three applications:

• DNS Audit -- designed to identify DNS errors. It scans a range of IP addresses or network, and performs reverse DNS lookups for each address. If the response is positive, it will perform a forward DNS lookup for verification.
• MAC Resolver -- scan a given address range, IP addresses or network, to list MAC addresses for each address. Shows network card vendors based on MAC prefixes.
• Subnet Calculator -- handy tool to quickly run subnet calculations.

Scanners finally lists four applications that let you run various scans:

• Ping Scanner -- the scanner will scan a range of IP addresses frequently. This helps you determine which IP addresses are in use. Will also perform reverse DNS lookups.
• Network Service Scanner -- designed to discover more than 70 TCP and UDP network services running on machines of a given IP address or network.
• Open TCP Port Scanner -- checks if ports are open at the selected address. May run a quick scan for popular ports, an extended scan (more than 3400 ports), a scan for trojan ports, or a custom range scan.
• SNMP Scanner -- offers basic device information of SNMP nodes on a network.

Most tools support options which you can reveal with a click on the ... menu icon in the main interface.  For ping, it allows you to change the timeout, packet delay and data size for instance, and for DNS info the DNS server and port used for the lookup.

Closing Words

NetCrunch Network Tools is a handy collection of networking related applications for Windows devices. The program worked well during tests, and there is little to criticize when it comes to functionality apart from missing export options. The forced registration is unfortunate on the other hand.

Now You: do you use network tools regularly?

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Windows maintains a list of recently opened files, and the operating system and programs may use the information to list these files for quick access.

Programs like Recent File Seeker, Recent Files View or Piles, are designed to list recent files, and they work better than having to scan the Registry manually to find the information.

While these programs work really well, you sometimes may want something that is even a tad easier to use.

Quickly list recent files opened by Windows Programs

If you use devices with Windows 10, Microsoft's newest Windows operating system, then you have another option when it comes to listing files. The feature is limited to the last three files opened by the program however.

This may be sufficient at times; at other times, you may want to use the programs listed above instead for that as they don't limit the data to just three items.

All you need to do is run a search for the program. So, tap on the Windows-key, and type the program name. I typed paint in the example above, and the recent listing of the results shows the last three images that I opened in Paint.net on the device.

You can launch those right away again with a click on them. The files are opened in the program, regardless of whether it is the default viewer for the file type, or not.

Please note that the file can only be opened if it still exists. It won't open if the file is not available anymore. This is the case if you deleted it, moved it, or renamed it for instance. Can also happen if a network share or drive is not available at the time you run the search.

A prompt is displayed if the recent file is not available anymore: The item you selected is unavaialble. It might have been moved, renamed, or removed. Do you want to remove it from the list?

You may remove the item from the list so that it won't show up anymore. This should only be done however if the file is permanently unavailable. If it is just missing temporarily, then you may want to click on cancel instead.

Closing Words

The method works really well for most programs, but not all of them. Some may not list recent files at all, and there is nothing that you can do about it. Note that you can clear all recent files at any time using programs such as CCleaner, Privazer, or another system cleaner. (via WinAero)

Now You: Do you find recent files records useful?

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I stumbled upon Wallpaper Engine while browsing the top sellers on Steam. The app was listed there next to games, and that got me interested as it takes quite a bit of sales to be featured there.

First of all, Wallpaper Engine is not free. It is available for $3.99 as an early access title. The application works really well for early access software, and all core functionality is already there.

The app ships with wallpapers, and support for the Steam workshop. There you find thousands of wallpapers created by users of the app. The majority of those are free, while some are available for a price.

Wallpaper Engine

I decided to embed a video above and not a screenshot, as it highlights better what Wallpaper Engine is capable of.

Once you have purchased the app on Steam and installed it, you can start it up right away. The app walks you through a couple of settings first that define wallpaper quality, startup, and the interface language among other things.

The interface of Wallpaper Engine is divided into two main parts when it comes to browsing and selecting wallpapers.

1. Installed lists all wallpapers that are installed already. The app ships with 13 wallpapers, and any that you install manually is listed there as well.
2. Workshop lists all wallpapers that are available on the application's Steam workshop page.

Preview any wallpaper by selecting it. This opens a larger preview of it, and several properties that you may adjust. This includes, usually, the playback rate, and colors.

You may use the remove wallpaper, ok and cancel buttons to apply or remove wallpapers from the desktop background again.

Animated wallpapers on the desktop are not nothing new, Microsoft introduced the feature as one of the few extras for Windows Vista Ultimate, and programs like VLC or Desktop Movie support it as well.

One core difference to that is that Wallpaper Engine supports more than just playing an animation, usually in form of a video. It supports 2D, 3D, HTML5, JavaScript, WebGL, application, and video wallpapers.

The teaser trailer embedded above highlights some of that. It shows a wallpaper that visualizes the music that is playing on the system, a wallpaper with game elements, and other forms of direct interaction with the wallpaper.

You can check out all available wallpapers on the apps' Steam Workshop page.

The app supports multi-monitor environments, and different aspect ratios and resolutions. Also worth noting is that it won't modify any system files for its functionality.

It will pause wallpapers automatically when games are played on Steam, and you may run any app or game in parallel with the software as well.

Performance depends largely on the selected wallpaper and type. It should be clear what application and website wallpapers will use more resources than lighter 2D or video based wallpapers that don't support interaction with the wallpaper.

You may switch between different quality levels in the settings, and modify a lot of quality related settings there manually as well.

The app uses a surprisingly low amount of RAM. It used about 11 Megabytes of RAM when I loaded an animated wallpaper called universe, and 12 Megabytes when I loaded the one called Techno. The interactive game wallpaper Sheep on the other hand required more than 60 Megabytes of RAM.

Wallpapers remain open only for as long as the Wallpaper Engine software runs. When you close it, the wallpaper is closed with it.

Wallpaper creation

You may create wallpapers using the software, and may upload them to the Steam workshop as well once you are done. Right-click on the application's icon in the system tray area to get started, and select create wallpaper.

A welcome prompt asks you to pick the type of wallpaper that you want to create. Available at the time of writing are scene wallpapers, video wallpapers, web wallpapers, and application wallpapers.

• Scene wallpapers -- Import 2D or 3D images / models.
• Video wallpapers -- Load a video file that you want to use as the wallpaper. It is looped automatically.
• Web wallpapers -- Based on HTML, JavaScript and WebGL.
• Application wallpapers -- Run an application, e.g. a game, as the wallpaper.

The first two wallpaper options are the easiest, provided that you don't plan on loading 3D models. Tutorials are provided that help you understand advanced creation topics, for instance the use of HTML5 and JavaScript to create web wallpapers.

Closing Words

Wallpaper Engine is a fantastic application for users and creators alike. As a user, you get to choose between thousands of wallpaper images, many of them animated or interactive. You can also create basic wallpapers quickly using the built-in editor.

Creators with knowledge of the required scripting and programming languages can create interactive wallpapers using the same built-in tools.

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Wikileaks started to release so-called Vault 7 files the other day; a cache of confidential documents on the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

A list of popular software programs was found among the information that the CIA used to target computer systems.

Fine Dining documents, Fine Dining is the codename for the operation, list 24 popular applications that the CIA used to attack computer systems.

The list reads like the who is who of the free software world, as it includes Google Chrome, VLC Media Player, Firefox, Opera, Kaspersky TDSS Killer, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, Skype, and Notepad++ to name just a few.

Notepad++ 7.3.3 update

The Notepad++ vulnerability is listed on this Wikileak's page. It is said to work with portable and non-portable -- read install -- versions of the text editor.

Notepad++ loads Scintilla, a "code editing component" (and seperate project), from a DLL adjacent to its EXE called "SciLexer.dll".  This DLL exports only one funciton named "Scintilla_DirectFunction" at ordinal #1

The DLL does a lot of "set up" in ProcessAttach, so it is important to load the true DLL as soon as the hijack is loaded.

The Notepad++ team released version 7.3.3 of the text editor to patch the DLL hijack security issue in the application.

The team notes that all future versions of Notepad++ will check the certificate of the scilexer.dll file before loading it to remedy the situation. If the certificate is invalid, or entirely missing, Notepad++ won't load the DLL file and will fail to launch as a consequence.

The team notes that this won't do you any good if the entire PC is compromised as attackers may do anything they like in this case (e.g. replace the notepad executable file with a modified copy).

Users of the program are encouraged to update immediately to protect the software from potential attacks. Downloads are provided on the official Notepad++ website, or via the program's automatic update functionality if enabled. Auto-update may not be triggered right away though, so it may be better if you download the new release manually from the website instead.

The new version of Notepad++ features a couple of other changes. Those are mostly bug fixes and a handful of smaller enhancements to the program though.

Expect to see other companies release updates for their products affected by the leak in the near future.

Now You: are you concerned about the leak?

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Depending on how you use your computers and the Internet, much of your digital life may happen already on the Web and no longer on your devices.

You may run email, chat, file hosting, media and other services in your browser of choice, and no longer as desktop programs.

The idea to move those services back to the desktop is not entirely new. There have been attempts in the past by browser developers or third-parties, to create engines that allow you to run web applications natively, or in dedicated browser windows.

WebCatalog

WebCatalog is available as a desktop program for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The engine is based on Chromium which is used to render the services on the desktop.

When you start WebCatalog you get the master list of services that it supports. You may use the built-in search to find services of interest as the list is quite large and requires scrolling.

Please note that you can only configure the services included in WebCatalog, and no other services. There is a submit new app request button however which you may use to suggest a new service for inclusion in WebCatalog.

As far as services are concerned, lots of popular services are supported. To name a few: Amazon Prime Video, BBC iPlayer, Chess.com, Dropbox, Evernote, Feedly, GitHub, various Google services, Instagram, Netflix, Pushbullet, Skype, Spotify, and more.

Each service is listed with its name, icon, a link to the main web page, and an install button. To start using it, hit the install button first. The installation itself should not take long, and won't take up a lot of disk space either.

The install button is removed after the process, and you get an open and uninstall button instead listed there. Uninstall removes the application again from the system, open runs it in a new window on the desktop.

What happens in that window depends largely on the service. Some services, SoundCloud for instance, don't require an account for usage. While you may sign in to an account anyway, you can start using them as a guest right away.

Most services do require an account however. You are asked to sign in to the service first before you can access your data or use the service.

How that is done depends on the service. Some let you sign in right away, others may require verification first before it can be used on the desktop.

The interface resembles that of a stripped down version of Chromium. You don't get an address bar and most of the other menu items, but you do get some.

You may use the menu to toggle fullscreen, navigate (right-click mouse is not working but shortcuts are), to clear browsing data, and copy URLs for the most part.

All installed applications and services are listed under installed in the main window. This gives you options to open them quickly rather than having to search or browse the master list of web apps.

Closing Words

If you prefer to run web apps, some or many, in a dedicated desktop environment instead of a web browser, you may find WebCatalog useful. Some may wonder why you'd want to do so. One reason that comes to mind is separation of these apps from your regular browsing. This may reduce tracking for instance, and reduces the chance of attacks that attempt to steal login data.

You do get less control though, cannot check URL or certificates quickly for instance. (via Caschy)

Now You: What's your take on the service?

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If you like to play chess online, or view matches online on various chess websites, then you may have noticed that it is often not that comfortable to watch the game.

This comes down mostly to the sites offering limited playback functionality. Many players use boards of their own next to the computer to follow the matches, but that is not always the best option as well as you will have to move your eyes between the PC monitor and the chess board all the time.

Kvetka: view and analyze chess matches online

Kvetka was designed for chess players and fans who watch chess matches online. It is a lightweight portable application that displays a chessboard in its interface on launch.

While that is not super spectacular on its own, its support for several of the most important chess websites is.

Kvetka, at the time of writing, supports the following online chess sites. The list is not complete, and other sites may work as well:

• Chess.com, chess-db.com, chess-online.ru, chess-samara.ru, chessbase.com, chesspro.ru, chesstempo.com, crestbook.com, chess-news.ru, igame.ru, and lichess.org.
• Additionally, it supports games created with the Chessbase HTML publisher, and games create with PNGtoJS utility.

To use it, open a chess match on one of the sites, e.g. this game between the Dutch Jan H Timman and Anatoly Karpov.

All you need to do is copy the url of the game, and paste it in the Kvetka application (use Ctrl-C to copy, and Ctrl-V to paste).

Select Load in Kvetka, and you will notice that the game has been loaded already. If the game is live, you may turn on auto refresh to pull new moves automatically from the site when they are published on it.

You may then use the back and forward buttons in the interface to go through the match one move at a time. A window with all moves is listed as well, and you may jump ahead to any position with a click on it in that window. This is great if you want to analyze a particular situation.

Kvetka offers a couple of additional information that you may find useful. It may reveal the name of the opening, and supports the saving of games at any time so that you can load them again at a later point in time.

Probably the best feature of the application is the engines it supports, and the analysis each engine provides.

The game ships with the Stockfish engine, but supports other engines that you may download and add to the program to use in your analysis of chess games.

The engines analyze each move, evaluate it, and display possible continuation moves. You may move pieces on the board to find out more about certain moves and recommendations by the selected chess engine.

You can set the interface of the program to always on top, and browse the history of online chess games that you loaded into Kvetka in the past.

The tutorials on the site are quite excellent. If you have troubles finding your way around using the software check them out.

Closing words

Kvetka is a specialized program for Windows. It is a great program for chess players who follow online chess matches on supported sites, or look them up every now and then.

The import of chess matches works really well -- you can use hotkeys but also right-click and select the paste operation this way -- and the information are loaded in less than a second usually.

All in all, if you like chess and watch online matches, this one may be of interest to you.

Now You: Do you play games online?

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There are plenty of tools out there that you may use to convert video files. We have reviewed a bunch of them over the years including THandbrake, using VLC, MeGUI, Handbrake, or Super Simple Video Converter.

While you can play nearly any file on the computer, provided you got the right player or codec installed, formats are usually more restricted when it comes to consoles or mobile devices.

Sometimes, you may also convert videos to shrink them in size or quality.

Hybrid

Hybrid is a big downloaded; it has a size of more than 200 Megabytes currently. Much of it is explained by the program's reliance on third-party tools to run the conversions.

Still, there are plenty of tools out there that ship with a fraction of the size of Hybrid.

The program has been designed to convert nearly any video file to MPEG-4 HEVC (x265), MPEG-4 ASP (Xvid), MPEG-4 AVC (x264..), VP8/VP9, and a couple of others formats.

The interface looks quite crowded when you start it up. It uses tabs to separate functionality. You may load nearly any video file, or Blu-Ray / DVD instead. IF the format is not completely obscure, it should be picked up by Hybrid.

Hybrid displays information on the loaded video file afterwards. The video and audio columns under main lists important parameters for instance.

Note: You need to add an output directory under Config > Output before you can add files to the jobs queue.

The next step depends on the format that you want to convert the video to. Select the format under Video handling. When you select a new format, the tab next to main changes to that format automatically. Switch to the tab afterwards to configure the output format in detail.

A second tab row is displayed underneath when you select the output format. What looks like an experienced user's dream can be quite overwhelming for less tech savvy users.

The eight tabs that open give you control over many, many parameters and features. You may change the encoding mode, switch configurations (including options to create custom configuration files in XML), configure frames and quantization in detail, and change dozens of additional parameters.

Inexperienced users may want to stick with the defaults, as they should work just fine in most cases. Experienced users can spend hours browsing the various tabs and modifying the defaults to optimize the output further.

Hybrid supports a couple of optional features. You may crop or resize videos, apply filters to the media file, and set up chapters.

You add the video file to the processing queue under main. Click on the plus icon there after you have checked the generate box to add it as a job.

Hybrid begins to process the video directly if no job is processed currently. The time it takes to complete the conversion depends on a number of parameters including the system the software is run on, the input format, and the selected output format and parameters.

Closing Words

Hybrid is a mighty video converter that you can run on Windows, Linux and Mac. While you can run it with the default options and parameters, its strength is the big number of settings, parameters and tweaks that you can make.

Some output formats are easier to configure than others. If you select x264 for instance, you get only two configuration tabs and not eight that you get when you select x265.

Now You: Which program do you use to convert videos?

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The open source version of LongoMatch is available for Windows, Mac OS X and various Linus distributions. It requires that you download and install a codec pack as well, as it is required for some of the application's functionality.

The company behind the product, Fluendo, created a Pro version of the application as well for commercial use. The Pro version supports a range of features that the open source version does not support. Plus, it gives you access to support channels such as a dedicated agent or live chat.

LongoMatch

You will be reminded on start of LongoMatch that the codecs need to be installed on the system to use it. You can close the prompt to go the main interface of the application, but some functionality may not work if you have not installed the codecs.

From there, you may start a new project, or open or import a project instead. If you select the new option, you get to select one of the available types. This defines the source video file for the analysis. You may load a video from the local system, have LongoMatch detect and connect to a capture device, connect to an IP camera, or fake a capture device.

The program ships with one default dashboard (for football it appears). If you want to analyze a different sport, you need to open the dashboards manager first to create or load dashboards that match that sport.

It enables you to set the field, number of players, goal, periods, and other events (red cards, defense) related to the game.

Back to the creation of the new project. The project properties screen lets you fill out general information such as the season, name of competition and date. There you will also load one or multiple video files that you want to use for the analysis.

LongoMatch won't load video files if the required codecs are not present. If you get the error matches that a selected video could not be loaded, you need to go back and install the codec package to add support for the format.

The video analysis itself is very powerful, even in the free version. It supports customized events, unlimited timelines (if you have lots of video sources),  views per location, and event lists.

The pro version supports additional tools, including zoom options, live fullHD encoding, better video quality, and professional analysis dashboards.

Closing Words

If you are the coach of a team, be it in school or amateur, you may use the sports analysis tool LongoMatch to analyze the games of your team to find out what went well, and where there is room for improvement.

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The program was designed initially for Windows 7, to bring back several Windows Vista Windows Explorer settings that Microsoft hid when it released Windows 7.

Folder Options X works under newer versions of Windows equally well however, so that you may run it on a Windows 8.x or Windows 10 device.

The program needs to be installed first on the target PC before you may use it to enable one, some or all of the tweaks it supports. The archive the program is provided as includes the source code.

Folder Options X

The installation does not hold any surprises, while the extracted files from the downloaded archive do include two web links to free resources that are not related to the program itself.

You get the option to start the program right after installation. The program lists the four options in its interface on start. All are selected by default, and a click on ok or apply will modify the system accordingly.

Here is an overview of what is supported by Folder Options X:

• Disable full row select -- This highlights only the filename and no longer the entire row in Windows Explorer.
• Column headers in all views -- This tweak enables column headers -- name, type, size, date modified and so on -- in all views. Windows does not display column headers in some of the views. This allows you to sort the file listing directly with a click on one of the headers.
• Enable icon reordering -- Provides you with an option to change the order in which icons are displayed if an icon view mode is selected.
• Keep focus on file list view -- This tweak keeps the focus on the file listing (as opposed to the sidebar for instance), so that you may use the keyboard to navigate it even if a folder is selected in the sidebar.

You can uncheck any of the options before you hit apply if you don't want them. Please note that you may need to restart the explorer.exe process, or log off and on again, or restart the PC, before the changes take effect on the device.

Closing Words

Folder Options X is a light program for Windows that you only need to run to apply the tweaks, or to remove them again. The program does not need to run otherwise.

Now You: do you use Windows Explorer, or a third-party alternative?

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The Windows version is compatible with all versions of Windows from Windows 2000 onward including Windows 7 and Windows 10.

It is offered as a portable version or installer. If you download the portable version, you will notice that it is offered as a self-extracting archive. Please note that it won't extract the files to a root directory unless you change the target manually.

You may also download a beta version of AndreaMosaic, and a user manual in six languages from the author's website.

AndreaMosaic

The main interface looks crowded on start, but you will notice after a moment that it is well designed and easy to use.

The mosaic creation process has you load an image that you want to turn into a mosaic, and images that you want used for that.

First thing you do is load the image that you want to reproduce as a mosaic.

AndreaMosaic supports only jpg or png images for that. If the source image is in a different format, you need to convert it first before you can load it in the application.

A preview of the image is displayed right away. The parameters on the left define the output. The following preferences can be customized:

1. Mosaic Size and resolution.
2. Tile size.
3. Pattern.
4. 1/2 and 1/4 Tiles.
5. Use same tile up to X times.
6. Duplicate spacing.
7. Color change.
8. Tile variants (original, mirror, rotated, flipped, integral).

Click on the Tile Images (2) icon at the top to select images that you want AndreaMosaic to use for the tiles of the mosaic. A sample image list of 500 images is available for download on the author's website.

It is recommended to load at least several hundred images for use by the software, as the result won't look nearly as good with a smaller sample size.

You may create and save lists here, so that you can load them in the future directly. This speeds up the process significantly. Another interesting option is the ability to extract tiles from a video file.

Make sure you select "save list" to save the list before you continue.

A preview of the mosaic is not displayed at this point. This means that you have to click on the process mosaic button (3), and open the mosaic file after the processing is done to find out if looks fine or if parameters need to be adjusted.

The preferences of the program display additional options. You may change mosaic creation parameters there, and output parameters. Mosaic parameters determine the quality of the mosaic that is created by the application.

Output parameters the target file format and quality, directory, and whether you want AndreaMosaic to create a HTML page that displays the mosaic as well during the processing phase.

Check out these mosaic creation alternatives as well: Foto Mosaik (Windows),or  Easy Moza (online).

Closing Words

AndreaMosaic is a sophisticated cross-platform mosaic creation software. It offers an extensive set of features and options. The one thing missing is a preview option directly in the application.

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The program is offered as a portable version that you can run from any location. The program is tab-based, and differentiates between backup and synchronization tasks.

The core difference between the two options is the following: Backup copies files from the source path to the target path, and that is about it. Synchronize supports two-way syncing between the selected folders, or one-way synchronization of the source folder and the target folder.

Note that you may also define custom sync settings in the project properties.

WinDataReflector

Select one of the available tabs, or the synchronize or backup buttons at the top to start a new project. You need to select a source and target directory regardless of task that you select, and may hit the process button once you have done that to have WinDataReflector scan the two paths.

Files and folders are displayed then, and stats about the file count and data size of the source and target path as well.

If you select synchronize, the required disk space to sync all files to the two directories is displayed, as well as the total number of files that are not in both or in the right directory.

While you can hit the sync or back up buttons right away to start the process, it is recommended that you check the project properties at least once. Here you find listed the following options:

1. Define if and when files get deleted during the process (only sync).
2. Define if a new or the same folder should be used for the backup (backup only)
3. Enable NTFS file permission copying.
4. Change synchronization rules.
5. Add exceptions (with or without regular expressions).
6. Schedule the job to run regularly.
7. Enable comparison of CRC checksums, and verification using checksums.
8. Enable logging.

Some of these options are quite useful, as you may schedule jobs, or change what is processed by a job.

A click on the schedule button in the main program window opens a list of all projects. You may open the settings from there as well. This can be useful if you have set up several jobs already, maybe even that many that you need to scroll to access them in the interface.

Closing Words

WinDataReflector is a powerful file synchronization and backup program for Windows. It supports one-way, two-way and custom sync jobs, backups with or without compression, and lets you run one or multiple jobs manually or on schedule.

The software supports copying NTFS file permissions, the filtering of files or folders using regular expressions, checksum verification, and more.

Now Read: the best free file synchronization programs for Windows

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The new update, updates the previously release preview of the component package of the software. All users, regardless of whether they have installed the preview update or not, should receive the component package update to version 1.0.75 through the software's automatic updating functionality.

The latest version is already offered as a download on the official website. So, if you have downloaded Malwarebytes just now, you have the latest version of the product installed already.

Malwarebytes 3.0.6 Component Update 1.0.75

You can check the version of Malwarebytes in the following way:

1. Open Malwarebytes on your system so that the interface of the program is visible on the screen.
2. Select Settings > About in the interface.
3. There you find the Malwarebytes version, and more importantly for this update, the component package version. It should read 1.0.75.

If it does not, select Dashboard to go back to the starting page. Locate Updates under scan status, and click on the link next to it there to run a manual check for update. If it is not picked up, I'd suggest you download the program anew from the Malwarebytes website to update it this way.

You are probably wondering what has been fixed in the version:

• Fixed issue with imaging programs (such as Macrium Reflect) where large artifact files were left in the System Volume Information folder if a backup is created with anti-ransomware protection enabled
• Fixed problem where Web Protection and Anti-Ransomware may fail to start properly
• Fixed problem where Web Protection detections were failing on Windows 10
• Fixed problem where DNS was not resolving properly with Web Protection enabled
• Fixed problem where Web Protection did not show the proper block page when Bitdefender 2017 was also installed
• Fixed an issue where certain drivers were not stopped and unloaded in Free mode
• Fixed memory leak
• Improved overall malware detection and remediation

The update addresses startup issues of several of the security program's components. In particular, it fixes issues with Web Protection not being enabled properly, and Web Protection related issues, such as DNS not resolving properly when the module ran in the background.

It is too early to tell whether component update 1.0.75 will fix all issues surrounding Web Protection and other components.

Malwarebytes notes that the update fixes several reported security vulnerabilities in the program as well.

Closing Words

If you run Malwarebytes 3.0 or later on your Windows system, you may want to make sure that the latest update is installed. It fixes several security issues, and long-standing issues that at least some users of the program had to live with since the release of Malwarebytes 3.0 Final.

Now You: Do you run Malwarebytes 3.x? What is your take on the new version?

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File sharing has not changed all that much in the past ten or so years. You can send files to other users in various ways: using email, (s)ftp, file sharing services, or online storage services. There are a couple of other options such as sharing files using USB storage devices and face to face exchanges.

It is difficult to transfer files securely. You could encrypt files before you send or upload them, but someone listening in could dump the data and try to break the encryption.

Face to face may work best, but only if you are not crossing any borders.

Onionshare

Onionshare was designed as a direct response to a passage in Glenn Greenwalds new book in which he described the issues that he was facing getting Snowden file copies from a fellow journalist.

The open source program Onionshare uses the Tor network for anonymity. What happens in the background is the following:

When you want to share files, Onionshare creates a temporary password protected website that is hosted on the Tor network.

Anyone with knowledge of the URL and the password can access the data, and download it to a computer system. Onionshare does not take care of that part of the communication though, so it is up to the user who set up the file transfer to use a secure channel to inform recipients about the availability of the data.

The recipient opens the URL in the Tor browser, and downloads files hosted on it to the local system. All that is left to do afterwards is to close down the site. This happens automatically by default after the first download.

You may stop this from being the case though if multiple users need to download the file, or if you want to keep it available in case it needs to be downloaded again.

The program -- we have tested the Windows version -- is easy to use. You need to install it on your system, and may launch it right after installation.

Note: You need to run Tor Browser on your system. If you don't have it, download it from the official Tor Project website.

The interface supports drag and drop operations, but you may also hit the add files or add folder button instead to use the file browser. Hit the "start sharing" button afterwards, and wait for the program to create the site in the background. If things go well, you get a custom URL the files or folders you selected are made available on.

Anyone with the url may download those then using Tor.

Passwords are not set up by default. To set up one, click on File > Settings. There you need to switch either to connect using control port, or connect using socket file. The password authentication option becomes available immediately afterwards.

Closing Words

Onionshare is an easy to use, yet anonymous cross-platform file transfer program. You can increase the protection beyond just requiring a password to download the files by encrypting the files.

Now You: Which programs do you use when you need to transfer files over the Internet?

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While you can open several public mapping services at all times if the device you are using is connected to the Internet, you sometimes may want map data to be available offline.

Maybe because you are traveling to a foreign country and don't have Internet there right away or at all, or maybe you are somewhere where Internet reception is bad, or not available at all. Downloading may also come in handy to avoid bandwidth charges, or having to wait until the data becomes available.

Map Puzzle

Map Puzzle is a feature packed portable maps downloader for Windows. Since it is portable, you may run it from any location including a removable drive or disc.

The main program interface may look intimidating at first, as it is packed with features and options, but you will get the hang of it quickly.

First thing you need to do is set a base mapping provider, and if you want, an alternative base mapping provider as well.

From there, you may enter coordinates directly, or enter the name and country of a place to have Map Puzzle look up the information for you. If successful, latitude and longitude are entered automatically.

Those are the only changes that you are required to make. You can theoretically hit download right away to download a map of that area.

You may however want to check out the image settings first, as they determine how much of an area gets downloaded, and how far you are zoomed in, or out of it.

The default area is set to 2560 pixels in width and in height, and the default zoom factor of 17 means that each pixel covers an area of 2.38 kilometers. The largest zoom level is 25 and it means that each pixel shows a couple of meters on the downloaded map (if you keep the default width and height).

You may modify the pixel size, or the zoom level to change the area that Map Puzzle will download once you hit the download button. The program supports presets, A4, A5, Fanfold and dozens more that you may select.

This can be useful if you want to print the map, and want to make sure it fits on whatever you want to print it on.

The preview button is useful in this regard as well, as it shows the area that the program will download as a preview.

The options that Map Puzzle provides don't end there though. You may add an overlay to the map on top of all that. Overlays include the Google Bike map, or hiking or cycling routes of other map providers.

You may also enable image addons, and the generation of a World File (GIS). Last but not least, you may select a different output format for the map (png is the default), and run all operations in bulk mode by adding multiple places of interest to the program.

Closing Words

Map Puzzle is a superb free program for Microsoft Windows devices. While you can use other programs for downloading maps, its feature set and ease of use makes it one of the prime programs for that task on Windows.

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The program is developed by Flexsense, a company known for high quality products such as the free hard drive management tool DiskBoss, the file change monitor DiskPulse, or the duplicate file finder DupScout.

SysGauge is available as a free download for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows. It runs on all client versions of Windows from Windows XP onward, and on all server versions of Windows from Windows Server 2003 onward.

SysGauge

The interface of SysGauge looks clean and nice on start. It displays information on the current and historic cpu usage on start,  and information about memory and disk space usage, disk activity and transfer rate, and network transfer rate at the bottom of the screen-

You can change the cpu usage information at the top with a click on one of the metrics listed in the table at the bottom of the screen.

You may also add new counters with a click on the add button. There are plenty of counters that you can add to SysGauge.

While you can select a core metric, e.g. disk activity or memory usage, you may also select finer metrics such as the disk write activity on the main hard drive, the cpu usage of a particular user, or information on the memory cache.

Apart from hardware counters, there are also options to display operating system, process, or file system information.

If you select operating system for instance, you may select to displays the total number of processes, terminal sessions, or access denied errors.

For processes, you may monitor the cpu or memory usage of a selected process among other things.

A click on local computer lets you pick a remote machine that you want to monitor using SysGauge.

Reports can be exported at any time to various file formats including HTML, PDF, Excel spreadsheets, plain text documents, XML files, and CSV files.

One interesting feature of SysGauge is the ability to save reports in intervals automatically. You find the option under SysGauge options > Advanced. You can configure the program to save data to an Excel spreadsheet every 10 minutes for instance, and/or to send the report to an email address in one of the supported formats.

The program may alert you if certain metrics cross a threshold. This is done either by sound, warning messages displayed on the screen, or by email.

You need to edit the counters to add thresholds that you want to monitor.Right-click on any counter that you want to monitor a threshold for, and click on the add button on the next page.

From there, it is just the matter of defining the threshold, and the type of notification. One easy example: You can set a 20% cpu usage threshold, and have SysGauge inform you about it by playing a custom sound. Other custom actions that you may add apart from receiving notifications is to restart or shut down the computer system.

You need to add an email server and authentication information to the program before the email options become available though.

This works equally well when you use the program to monitor a remote computer.

Tip: You may change the interval in which historic information are kept in the settings as well. The maximum is 90 days, the minimum 24 hours (default).

System Status Analysis

Another interesting feature of SysGauge is the ability to create a system status analysis report.

Simply hit the button and wait for the program to scan the local computer. The application checks cpu, memory, and disk space usage, and operating system metrics such as number of processes and errors.

All counters are displayed with their values and a rating which ranges from excellent to warnings and errors.

The report hints at areas that you may need to investigate further, but does not provide tools or additional information for that.

While it may be easy enough to understand a low memory warning and do something about it, things may not be as easy when it comes to the total number of threads, or system errors.

Closing Words

SysGauge is a well designed feature rich system and performance monitor for Windows. It is relatively easy to use, yet powerful enough to please administrators and power users alike.

One thing that I would like to see is the ability to display information on more than metric as a graph or in real-time in the program's main interface.

The program's memory usage is quite low (less than 10 Megabyte while running on a 64-bit version of Windows using the 64-bit version of the application).

Now You: do you use system monitoring software?

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it is a good idea from a security point of view to harden an operating system after installation or on first run.

One idea behind hardening the system is to restrict services or features that you don't require, another to lock down certain features to improve security.

You may do so using built-in tools or the Windows Registry.

Hard Configurator is a free program for all versions of Windows starting with Windows Vista that adds a graphical user interface for quite a few security related features. It looks a bit like the big brother of Hardentools, another Windows hardening program.

Hard Configurator

The program does not reinvent the wheel, but you may find it easier to use than using the Registry. This is especially true if you need to hunt down the relevant values first before you can even start to change them.

The main interface of the program is without the shadow of the doubt not the prettiest, and some of you may even call it confusing or messy.

The author added help buttons to all core features the program offers, and a button to open the general help for any option that does not have a dedicated help button. The help files displayed a blank window however on a 64-bit version of Windows 10 Pro I tried the application on.

So what can you do with the program?

1. Enable or disable Software Restriction Policies (SRP) in Windows Home versions.
2. Change SRP levels, enforcement, and protected extensions.
3. Whitelist files by path and by hash.
4. Enable or disable Windows Defender PUA (Potentially Unwanted Application) protection.
5. Enable or disable untrusted fonts in Windows 10.
6. Enable or disable execution from removable disks.
7. Enable or disable the Windows Scripting Host.
8. Enable or disable PowerShell script execution.
9. Restrict shortcut execution to select folders.
10. Hide or unhide "run as administrator".
11. Force Smartscreeen filter checks for files that are not marked as "from the Internet" on Windows 8 or newer.
12. Enable or disable Remote Assistance, Remote Shell, or Remote Registry.
13. Protect writable subfolders in c:\windows.

Buttons are provide to turn all SRP options on or off, and to turn off all restrictions.

As far as the general application layout is concerned, it lists the main options in the second and fifth column, and the values of the entries of these columns in the first and six column.

You may turn features on or off individually. While you can set most using the Registry, it is faster using the program.

The downside is that you don't really see what the program does in the background while you have full control over the process if you do it manually.

One of the interesting features of Hard Configurator is to enable the SmartScreen filter for programs that don't have the "from the web" Alternate Date Stream attached to them.

This ensures that the security feature will check programs that come from removable disks, drives, optical discs, container file formats, or files downloaded using third-party programs.

Hard Configurator ships with a tools section. You may use it to restore Windows defaults, create a system restore point, run the SRP/Scripts eventlog view, or run autoruns: scripts/userSpace.

As always, if you use a program that makes system changes, make sure you run a backup job prior to that so that you can restore the operating system should things go wrong along the process.

Closing Words

Hard Configurator provides you with options to make security related changes to Windows quickly. The program is not the easiest to work with, and the blank help files are somewhat discouraging as well. The program appears to make the right changes though to the Registry.

Now you: have you hardened your operating system

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The Windows start menu is probably the central location that Windows users use when it comes to launching programs not pinned to the taskbar.

It features a search, and the listing of installed programs that added a shortcut to the start menu.

While it is doing an okay job usually, it is not spectacularly fast nor is there a guarantee that the right results will be provided.

Program launchers are the way to go in this case. They are usually a lot faster, and may provide extra features that Start does not offer.

We have reviewed our fair share of programs in the past; here is a short selection: Keypirinha, Wox. Launchy, and other program launchers.

Hain: fast program launcher

Hain is based on Electron which explains the large size of the program download and size on disk. It is portable, and you may run it from any location without installation.

You bring the launcher to the front with the keyboard shortcut Alt-Space to launch programs or use other features that Hain supports.

The program search and execution works as expected. Once you start to type results are displayed in the program interface. You can launch any result with the mouse or keyboard, and the process itself is fast and comfortable.

Hain supports fuzzy search, so that it may find results that are mistyped.

First thing you may want to do is load /preferences to add or remove folders from the program's file search database.

Hain searches several folders by default, for instance the desktop and start menu, and also system32. You can add folders, for instance a folder full of portable programs to the "search recursively", or "not recursively" listing.

The application ships with a couple of extra functions that you can use right away. Type any URL to load it in the default web browser, or use the built-in calculator.

Hain plugins are pure JavaScript, and it should not come as a surprise that there are plenty of available. The program ships with an experimental package manager that you can use to list and install plugins.

Type /hpm install, and pick one of the available plugins from the listing. You find a todo list manager, dice roller, several search plugins, shutdown commands, Steam launcher and dozens of additional plugins listed there that you can install with a tap on the return key after selecting the plugins.

Hain is pretty fast, even if you install plugins. One of the main downsides of the program is that it uses a lot of memory. The program's Electron-base is the cause for this. Hain used about 350 Megabyte on a 64-bit Windows 10 machine I tested it on.

Not really lightweight, and the main reason why it is not suitable for older devices that are low on RAM. This is not a problem if a PC has plenty of RAM. Still, if you compare it to program launchers that use a couple of Megabytes, it is a stark contrast.

Closing Words

Hain is an open source portable program launcher for Windows that uses a plugin system that is based on pure JavaScript. Dozens of plugins are provided, and the searching and execution of queries is fast.  The downside is the program's RAM hunger.

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While you can work with the basic Registry Editor that ships with the Windows Operating system, it is not the most comfortable of programs for the job. While it offers all the basics that you require, it lacks features such as quick jumping, a search that does not just jump to the next or previous hit, and more.

Microsoft will add a quick jump option when it releases the Windows 10 Creators Update, but that is about it.

Registry Finder is a standalone program that makes working with the Windows Registry more comfortable. It supports quick jumping, tabs, lists all matching values and keys when you search, and ships with powerful import and export options.

You can read our initial review of Registry Finder here.

Registry Finder 2.17

The new version of Registry Finder, Registry Finder 2.17, does not reinvent the wheel, and that is a good thing. It adds new options to the program however, and some changes as well.

The main feature of the new version is an option to export Registry keys for deletion. Up until now, all you could do was export keys to a Registry file to import them on the same or another version of Windows at a later point in time.

The new delete option does the opposite. When you execute the exported Registry file, all values referenced in it are deleted from the Registry.

This can be useful for deleting keys at times or regularly. All it takes is to click on the file to do so

Veteran users of Registry Finder may notice that Save is no longer available. The author renamed it to Export which offers the same functionality.

Another change affects the program's Remote Registry support. Registry Finder won't connect to a Remote Registry until the tab is selected. Tabs remain open during sessions, that is why it is a useful feature as you may not want a connection to a Remote Registry any time you open the program.

Our review of Registry Finder dates back to version 2.8 released in January 2016. The author released several updates in the meantime that add features or make changes to the program.

Here is a short list of important changes:

• Option to search keys modified within a date range.
• Multiple Find results windows.
• Added support for automatic updates.
• Option to start Registry Finder connected to a remote computer.
• Option to copy or paste Registry values and keys through the Windows Clipboard.
• Regular Expressions support in search.
• Option to change the font used by the program.
• Option to open a search result key in a new tab.

Those are just a selection of changes that were implemented in previous releases since our latest review of Registry Finder.

Closing Words

The author of Registry Finder pushes out updates regularly for the application. It is free, a portable version is available, and definitely more comfortable than the default Windows Registry Editor.

Now You: If you edit the Registry, which program do you use for the job?

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We reviewed TeraCopy for the first time back in 2007 here on the site, and looked at a development version of TeraCopy 3.0 in mid 2016 as well.

The first public build of TeraCopy 3.0 was released by its author in December 2014. What followed were several beta and release candidate versions, before the final release.

One of the main changes, which we mentioned in our preview last year already, is that TeraCopy 3.0 does not support Windows XP anymore. The old version is still available for download on the developer site; so that is what XP users may download and use.

Windows 10 is officially supported by TeraCopy 3.0, as are ultra HD monitors.

TeraCopy 3.0 Final review

More than three years have passed since the initial release of the first TeraCopy 3.0 alpha. A long time period, and a lot of changelogs to parse to find out what changed and improved.

Here is a short list of the most important features and changes in TeraCopy 3.0:

• Faster copy process, especially to and from network locations, and with small files.
• Option to create checksum file list after copy process (MD5, SFV, SHA, SHA256, SHA512)
• Support for an unlimited number of files.
• Support for Volume Shadow Copy and elevated Windows service.
• Option to test files after copy.
• Option to delete and wipe files.
• Option to add entire drive to file list.
• Support for moving files.
• Support for cloning files.
• New replace dialog. Displays small thumbnails for image files for better decision making.
• New replace mode
• Options to shutdown or hibernate when the transfer completes.
• Option to queue transfers for the same physical drive.
• Support for waiting for network or device recovery.
• Support for Windows 8 and 10 notifications.
• Faster logical to physical disk mapping.
• Numerous bug fixes

This list is far from complete. You can check out the Code Sector blog for a full listing of changes.

New Folder with Selection

Some features require a little bit of explaining. The new "new folder with selection" feature that is been integrated in Explorer moves all selected files to a new folder in the same directory. It is a quick way of moving files from a root folder into a subfolder.

Wiping data with TeraCopy 3.0

When you select Delete now in the TeraCopy interface, you get options to wipe the data. This overwrites the data on disk with random data once to prevent file recovery.

Transferring entire drives

You may add entire drives to TeraCopy's copying process now using the "add folder" option. The whole drive that you have selected will be scanned. This can take a while depending on size and number of files.

Everything else is handled in the same fashion as file or folder transfers afterwards though.

Closing Words

The new version of TeraCopy introduces several new features that are accessible from Explorer or from within the interface directly.  Some, like support for Volume Shadow Copy, improve the program significantly. Other features are under the hood changes that improve the program's performance in several ways.

TeraCopy 3.0, all in all, is a major update of the file transfer software that users of the program will certainly -- for the most part -- like a lot.

Now You: Do you use file transfer programs like TeraCopy?

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The Windows operating system ships with a broad range of features. Some of these features are enabled for compatibility reasons on all editions of Windows.

While these features have their uses in certain environments, Enterprise for instance, they may not be used by the majority of home users.

The main idea behind Hardentools is to turn off these features to make Windows more secure in the process.

Note: You need to make sure that you don't require the features that Hardentools disables on Windows, as you won't be able to use them afterwards anymore. Read on to find out which features get disabled when you run the tool.

Hardentools review

Hardentools is a simple program. While it does ship with a graphical user interface, it does not provide users with many options however. In fact, the interface has only one button -- harden -- that users can click on to initiate the process. A restart is required to finalize the changes made to the operating system.

Note: The program features a restore option. You get it after you have applied the changes to the operating system, restarted the PC, and ran the tool again. This enables you to restore the features that the first run of the tool disabled.

It needs to be noted that the tool is not meant for public distribution yet according to the developers.

The developers plan to add a selection menu to the program in the future. For now, that one button is all you get.

Here is the list of features that Hardentools disables when you press that button:

1. Disables Windows Scripting Host.
2. Disables AutoRun and AutoPlay.
3. Disables powershell.exe, powershell_ise,exe, and cmd.exe execution via Windows Explorer.
4. Disables Microsoft Office Macros.
5. Disables Microsoft Office OLE object execution.
6. Disables Microsoft Office ActiveX.
7. Disables JavaScript in PDF documents in Acrobat Reader.
8. Disables the execution of objects embedded in PDF documents.

As you can see, the changes can have wide reaching consequences. Especially the disabling of PowerShell and Cmd need to be mentioned in the context.

This is obviously not a big issue for users who never run PowerShell or Cmd. All users who do however cannot use Hardentools right now because of the missing selection options.

Hardentools main feature currently is that it is dead easy to use. Users who want more control over the process can make individual changes manually instead.

While this requires a bit of research, it is usually not that hard, and it gives you more flexibility when it comes to hardening the operating system.

The biggest issue right now for home users is to determine whether a feature is needed or not. While you can simply go ahead and apply the changes, and see where that takes you after the restart, it is usually better to know beforehand.

Closing Words

Hardentools is an interesting project that may already be useful in certain situations and environments. Most users may want to hold off for now though because of the program's all or nothing approach to things right now.

This will change over time according to the developers, and that will certainly increase the application's reach significantly.

Now You: Have you hardened your operating system?

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While you may have all the confidence in the world in resident security software, it may be a good security precaution to run second opinion scans regularly on machines just to confirm that confidence.

The reason for scanning the system with other security software is simple: no solution is perfect. What one product may detect, may be totally unknown to another.

There are numerous tools that you can use to run second opinion scans, for instance Malwarebytes 3.0, Dr. Web CureIt, or Microsoft Security Scanner.

CrowdInspect review

CrowdInspect is an on-demand scanner for Windows. You can download the program from the developer website, and run it from any location on supported Windows machines.

The program displays an EULA on start, an an option to switch from the integrated Virustotal API key to a custom one. The main benefit doing so is that CrowdInspect displays only total scores and not individual scores if the built-in key is used.

The program lists all running processes on start, and begins to scan them right away. Each process is listed with its name, and a variety of useful information.

The four columns that begin right after process name and ID highlight code injection status, the Virustotal score, the Team Cymru malware hash registry result, and Web of Trust for remote connections.

These scores are color coded, and indicate right away if the file checked out fine, or if it requires further attention.

CrowdInspect checks the network status of each process as well, displays the type and state, and local and remote IP addresses.

The scans happen in real-time while CrowdInspect is up and running. If a new program is launched for instance, it is scanned by the program eventually.

You may pause the scanning at any time with a click on the pause button. You may also add or hide information from the interface. A click on full path replaces the file name with the full path and file name for instance.

Buttons are provided to kill selected processes or close network connections. You may right-click on processes instead to run the termination or close commands using the context menu.

A click on VT results opens score details and a link to the Virustotal website to look it up online. This is useful if at least one of the antivirus engines that Virustotal supports reports a hit.

CrowdInspect supports a history feature that you can switch to from the live view. History lists processes, scans and all of that sorted by date and time.

Closing Words

CrowdInspect is a handy second opinion scanner for Microsoft Windows that scans running processes and network connections using a variety of services. You may still need other software if hits are reported, as CrowdInspect does not offer much in terms of handling threats other than killing processes and cutting network connections.

Now You: Do you use second opinion scanners?

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An Internet off switch can be useful at times, for instance to block anyone from connecting to a machine, or making sure that processes don't phone home at a specific point in time, or to cut malware off from downloading additional payloads.

While you can do so in a number of ways, from removing the network cable or turning off WiFi on the router, to using a firewall or the netsh command.

Programs like Turn Internet Off for Windows, or NetGuard for Android offer similar functionality.

Net Disabler

Net Disabler is a free program for Windows that gives you an easy to use control interface for that.

The free program is compatible with all recent versions of Windows, and is offered as a 32-bit and 64-bit version.

It displays its main settings on start. You need to select one or multiple of the available blocking options -- disable devices, block with DNS or block with Windows Firewall -- and hit the apply setting button afterwards to block net connections using the selected method(s).

To restore Internet connectivity, simply uncheck the boxes and hit the apply setting button again.

The program indicates whether the Internet connection is on or off directly, so that you know the status of it on first glance.

A click on menu opens additional options. Network adapters list all adapters for instance, and you may use the menu to include or exclude some from the operation.

You may also set a password that protects the application from unauthorized access. This can be interesting if you want to run it on another user account, for instance on a child's account and limit Internet connectivity this way temporarily or even permanently.

The menu links to the device manager, network connections, and the firewall settings as well for quick access.

You may run the program from the command line as well. The base command for the 64-bit version is netdisabler_x64.exe /E for enabling Internet connectivity, and netdisabler_x64.exe /D for disabling connectivity. The 32-bit version uses the same command, but without the _x64 part in the file name, e.g. netdisabler.exe /D.

You may specify the target actions using the /T command. Available are 1 (Device), 2 (DNS) and 3(Firewall). The command netdisabler_x64.exe /D /T 3 disables Internet connectivity using the firewall.

Closing Words

Net Disabler is a useful portable program that you can run on demand from any location. It is easy to block the Internet, and to restore connectivity again at a later point in time.

Now You: Do you block Internet connectivity occasionally?

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The company behind the product released Malwarebytes 3.0 not too long ago. The new product changed things around significantly, for instance by bundling the company's products -- Anti-Malware, Anti-Exploit and Anti-Ransomware -- into a single product.

New products have more bugs more often than not, and Malwarebytes 3.0 was no exception to that. The developers of the product released updates for the security software that fixed crash and memory leak issues, and other issues.

While that improved the stability of the software significantly, it was not a catch all solution up until now. There are still users of Malwarebytes 3.x out there that face issues with the latest version of the program.

Malwarebytes has not released a public update yet, but a preview is already available of an upcoming version. If you experience issues with the latest version of Malwarebytes, you may want to install that update to see if it resolves those issues.

Malwarebytes 3.0.6 update to Component Package version 1.0.69

First thing you may want to do is check the version information of the installed copy of Malwarebytes. You find the information under Settings > About.

Check the Malwarebytes version and the Component Package version. The Malwarebytes version should read 3.0.6.1469. If it is not , you need to update the software to the latest version anyway as newer versions are already available to the public.

If that is the installed version, you will notice that the component package version is 1.0.50.

The preview update brings the component package version of Malwarebytes to 1.0.69.

The download link has been posted on the official Malwarebytes forum. This is the only option to update Malwarebytes 3.0.1469 currently.

Please note that this is labeled a preview. It may not be stable, and you may experience issues installing it on a machine.

I did not notice any issues installing it on a Windows 10 64-bit PC however, but your mileage may vary.

It is recommended to create a backup of important data before you install the preview update.

The component package version should read 1.0.69 after the update.

The preview download will be replaced eventually by the public Malwarebytes 3.0.6 update.

Since it is a preview, there is no word yet on the changes that it introduces. It may fix issues that you are experiencing, and may be worth a shot because of that. (thanks AJ North for the tip)

Now You: How has your experience with Malwarebytes 3.x been so far

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If you copy or paste text on a Windows machine, the formatting of the text is copied along with it to the Windows Clipboard.

While that may be desired at times, it can be problematic if you need to paste the textual contents to an editor that supports the formatting, but want to paste it without it.

Some programs allow you to do that natively. Firefox and Thunderbird support the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift-V for instance which always pastes text as plain text without formatting.

If the programs you use don't support this functionality however, you will have to find another way. Some users may paste the text to a plain text editor before they copy and paste it again to the program they want to paste it to without formatting.  Works, but takes more time than it should.

PlainPaste

PlainPaste is a portable program for Windows that introduces the plain copying, pasting and cutting functionality globally.

Here is how it works. Instead of using the keyboard shortcut once to paste text, you use it twice to do a plain paste. The program delays the double-key presses a bit for that to give you enough time to press the shortcut a second time before the content is pasted.

This works really well, but has the disadvantage that you will notice a delay during regular pasting operations.

PlainPaste enables the option for pasting only by default. You need to open the preferences of the application to enable it for copying or cutting as well.

There you may also change the shortcut delay. You may need to experiment with the delay to find the right balance between firing the event off to plain paste, copy or cut, and the delay you are experiencing when using the normal copy, paste functionality.

So, if you need to use plain Clipboard operations at times, you may find the program useful for that as it retains the old functionality, but adds the plain options to it.

Closing Words

PlainPaste is a portable program for Windows designed to provide you with options to cut, paste or copy data without formatting to and from the clipboard.

It depends largely on how you work on Windows machines if you find the program useful or superfluous.

Now You: How do you handle plain pasting on Windows?

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You have plenty of options if you want to keep files in sync between two folders.  You can check out our overview of the best free file synchronization programs for Windows for instance as a start.

File Move is not a real-time program that runs in the background at all times to sync files as soon as changes are noticed.

Instead, it runs only on user command. While that limits it somewhat, it is ideal for situations where you don't require real-time sync. If you know that contents of the source folder only change ever so often, say once a month, using a real-time sync client may be overkill as it uses system resources all month long as it needs to run in the background.

File Move

File Move displays all options in the main interface on start. The interface is divided into three main sections:

1. The source pane which lists source folders that you want to sync to other folders.
2. The destination pane which lists the folders you want the data synced to.
3. The options pane which defines several parameters of the sync operation.

Add at least one source and one destination folder to the program. You may hit the analyze button right away to get all files listed as well as the total count of files. What is not listed unfortunately is the total size of all files on the source folders.

The execute and synchronize buttons at the bottom may cause some confusion as it is not clear how they differ. Execute runs any pending file operations, while synchronize analyze and then execute. So, they do the same more or less.

You may want to check the options at least once before you hit any of the two buttons though.

The default sync mode adds missing files to the destination folder, and replaces any matching files if the size is different.

You can switch the latter to replacing files with different dates, different content, or a combination of the three.

File Move won't remove any files in the destination folder if they are no longer found in the source folder. A check of "remove files that are not in the source folder" changes that. Lastly, you may include empty folders in the operation, and enable the shut down of the program or Windows in the post-processing options.

There is also a second options menu under view in the menu bar. The options listed on the extra page let you filter files by name or extension, change the algorithm used to compare files (MD5 by default), ignore write protection, change the copy buffer, and have the program create a report at the end of the operation.

Source and destination folder contents can be saved to the local disk, and opened at a later point in time.

Closing Words

File Move is a straightforward file sync software that is compatible with all recent and even not so recent versions of Windows. The program syncs on demand only, and ships with a good set of options.

It could use a couple of extra features and options, like listing the space required to sync all files, and the space available in the destination folder.

Now You: Do you use file synchronization programs?

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